Publisher’s Corner

February 17, 2024

Time again for another “Publisher’s Corner” column. Last time, in January, I added a “News and Releases” section at the end of the column, with news from previously reviewed artists, making it easier to see what some of your favorite blogged-about artists are up to. This wasn’t a “coffee-and-YouTube” morning in my home today, so this “Corner” will be solely “News and Releases.” I received a little feedback that suggested you seemed to enjoy the “News and Releases” segment last month, but what do the rest of you think? Is previously-reviewed-artist news a good addition as an occasional Blog feature?

News and Releases

We hope you enjoy this new occasional feature, where we fill you in on what’s happening in the careers of old Blog favorites. You can expect some of the releases mentioned to be reviewed in upcoming blog posts, but as time and space are limited, many will not be reviewed, not necessarily governed by our fondness for the songs/albums, either.

Kristian Montgomery & the Winterkill Band: Kristian is up for a few awards at the Listen Up Awards, featuring the best artists in and around the Capital Region of New York. Kristian has been nominated in the Best Country Artist, Best Americana Artist, and Best Dressed categories. Voting for the Listen Up Awards continues through the end of February via the link on this page. Here at the Blog in recent years, we’ve reviewed three of Kristian’s albums and one of his singles.

Fondatsiata: Bulgarian supergroup Fondatsiata has announced the initial dates of the band’s Bulgarian tour, with dates scheduled from early March through early April in Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Karlovo, Haskovo, and Smolyan. Of course, here at the Blog, I reviewed the band’s metro Boston performance during its 2017 U.S. tour.

Eliza Neals: Decorated blues singer Eliza Neals released her latest single, “Something’s Better Than Nothing,” on February 1st. Here at the Blog, you’ve seen contributor Eric Harabadian’s reviews of Eliza’s album 10,000 Feet Below in 2017 and of her single “Sugar Daddy” in 2021.

Ayla Brown and Rob Bellamy: Congratulations to Boston-area country music favorites Ayla and Rob, who recently announced that they’re expecting baby number two. (Of course, I’ve reviewed this dynamic duo once so far, at the 3rd Annual Local CountryFest in 2019.)

Jennifer Tefft: Boston-area rock singer Jennifer Tefft’s new single “Caffeine” is slated to drop on February 23rd, with a single release show slated for the following night in Roslindale. We reviewed two of Jennifer’s singles at the Blog last year.

Carissa Johnson: Carissa’s new melancholy-meets-angsty rockin’ single “I Surrender” just dropped yesterday, February 16th. Of course, several weeks ago, I reviewed Carissa’s last single, “Congratulations.” So, Carissa, congratulations on a new kickass single.

Twisted Rose: I reviewed Twisted Rose’s melodic hard-rockin’ album Cherry Tales just a few weeks ago. Yesterday, the band released its fifth music video from the album, this one for the emotional ballad “Crossing the Line.”

Chris Moreno: Last month, Blog favorite rock/country singer-songwriter Chris Moreno released his cool new single “Austin,” on which Chris shows he hasn’t lost his touch for writing engaging songs that take full advantage of his emotional, grainy, hint-of-a-rasp voice. Here at the Blog, you may have read our review of Chris’s early album Into the Sun in 2017 and my review of one of his electric live performances shortly thereafter.

Red Sammy‘s new album Holy Fluorescent Light dropped earlier this month, on February 9th. A Blog review of the album is planned, though it currently sits buried in a months-long backlog of reviews. This is Red Sammy’s tenth studio album. A few weeks ago, we reviewed Red Sammy’s single “Some Days I Feel Crazy,” which appears on the new album.

Reality Suite: The band’s upcoming single, “Legendary,” is currently being mixed and is slated for a March 1st release by DI Records. (Two years ago, I reviewed Reality Suite’s insanely catchy single “Triggers.”)

Mark Wilkinson: Australian guitar-slinging singer-songwriter Mark Wilkinson, who starred at an incredible house concert I reviewed several years ago, has released dates for his big Australian tour in April and May of this year. I’m pretty sure all of my readers in Australia already know who he is, but even so, considered yourselves forewarned, this is a tour not to miss!

Natalie Joly: Natalie’s new single, “Paint the Picture,” dropped in January; then the video hit YouTube on February 9th On this new single, Bostonian-in-Nashville Natalie delivers a pop, rock, and perhaps just slightly country mix that’ll appeal to a broad range of music fans. Regular Blog readers may remember my reviews of Natalie’s singles “Will You Ever Stop” and “Yours to Stay” a couple years ago.

Lisa Bastoni: Yesterday, February 16th, Lisa Bastoni released “Let’s Look at Houses,” the first single from her upcoming On the Water album, which is scheduled to be released on March 8th. Back in 2021, I reviewed Lisa’s 2019 album How We Want to Live, while regular Blog contributor Eric Harabidan reviewed her 2021 EP Backyard Birds.

Kelsey Blackstone: Boston-based singer Kelsey Blackstone has announced her move to Nashville on March 1st. Congratulations to Kelsey and good luck in her new city. And Nashville, you’re really going to dig this unique new addition to your music scene. Get out and enjoy her talent once she arrives! Of course, I reviewed Kelsey’s video-award-nominated single, “When I’m With You” (with Jason LaPierre), last fall.

If you enjoyed any of the above artists when we originally reviewed them, please check out their new releases (if that’s what the “news” is). And if you’re unfamiliar with any of these artists, check them out; I’ve included links to our write-ups in each of the paragraphs so you can go back and take a look. Congrats to all of the artists featured in today’s column and to any of the Blog‘s other favorite artists whose new news I’ve missed.

How do I get included in future “News and Releases” segments?

The news items above have been pulled from e-mail newsletters and press releases (a few of you have us on your e-mail lists) and from the artists’ social media accounts (because I follow many of the artists we’ve reviewed on social media). So please make sure I’m on your mailing list. If we’ve reviewed you but you don’t have my e-mail address, you can always use my contact form until we exchange e-mails for the first time.

What if I’ve never been reviewed at the Blog?

Sure, I’m only including news about artists we’ve reviewed in these segments, but if we haven’t reviewed you yet, please make sure we’re getting your music. The “How to Send Me Music” section on my contact form explains how to send music to be considered for review. We get a lot of great music and write about only a few of our favorites each month. So if we choose to review your music, that means we really like it, but if we don’t, then it could just be because we don’t have the bandwidth to review all the great music we get. Maybe the timing wasn’t great. Maybe it’s a great song and just didn’t connect with us. (And yeah, also, maybe we just didn’t like it.) Note, too, that it can take weeks or months for your music to work its way through my review queue, so even if I select your music for review, the review will probably be published just a couple weeks after you’ve given up hope that it’ll happen. Especially now. (My backlog is insanely long right now!)

Thanks for reading! I know there wasn’t a “Coffee-and-YouTube” playlist in this “Publisher’s Corner.” Maybe next time.